1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a GDMO (Guideline for Definition of Managed Objects) translator, and particularly related to a GDMO translator, a method of GDMO translation, and a recording medium containing a program for GTMO translation which are capable of generating a variety of application programs for a plurality of network management systems. These technologies will be comprehensively called as the GDMO translator.
This application is based on Patent Application No. Hei 9-25953 filed in Japan, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, this type of GDMO translator is, as shown in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 3-179950, used for generating application programs to construct a network management system. The system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 3-179950 starts up a managed object compiler by inputting a template containing managed object contents. The managed object compiler generates static data for a management information table.
In this case, if the network management system is an OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) management agent, the template is the GDMO template and the management object compiler corresponds to the GDMO translator. The GDMO translator generates data or programs relating to the network management system.
There is a type of conventional GDMO translator, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 8-202544, which facilitates changing an output file syntax by use of a generating source template. FIG. 10 shows a block diagram of a conventional translator disclosed by Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 8-202544. A user describes the user source file 1010 and starts up the compiler 1020 while inputting the user source file 1010. The compiler 1020 generates a user source program object code 1070 on one hand, and, on the other hand, the front portion 1200 conducts a lexical analysis, a syntax analysis, and a semantic analysis to extract a definition in terms of classes in the user source program 1010, and the definition is output to an analysis information file 1030. A program generation processing portion 1050 receives the analysis information file 1030 as an input and generates a generating source program 1060. A method of generating the generating source program 1060 is executed by the steps of reading a generating source template 1040 and outputting the content of the generating source template 1040 as it is to the generating source template 1040. The generating source program 1060 is generated by substituting the portion concerned in the generating source template 1040 for a segment of information indicated by the analysis information file 1030.
FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a generating source templates 1040 disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 8-202544. The generating source program is generated by replacing a portion described by Kanji character codes with information indicated by the analysis information file 1030.
The first problem in conventional systems is that they require to develop a number of GDMO translators, because, although input information is the same, the system must cover wide application objects. Therefore, labor-hours to develop many GDMO translators increases inevitably.
The reason for the above problem is in that there are a number of platforms for developing a network management system, which links with output programs of the GDMO translators. The network management system is constructed based on a GDMO template, a syntax of which is regulated by the OSI. The GDMO translator plays a role to produce a program code for the network management system from the GDMO template by automating the above procedure. The disclosure of the above Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 3-179950 is an example of such GDMO translator. In the network management system, there are always two things comprising a network monitoring manager and a network monitoring object, both of which are developed based on the same template. However, a program generated for a platform for developing the network monitoring manager and a program generated for a platform for the network monitoring object are different. Therefore, it is necessary to provide at least two GDMO translators for constructing the network management system.
In addition, since there are many platforms for developing the network management system, it is necessary to develop various GDMO translators corresponding to respective platforms. Even if the platform is the same, since many opportunities are encountered to change an application program interface (API) whenever the version is upgraded, it is also necessary to develop and to modify the GDMO template whenever the version is altered.
The first problem may be avoided, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 8-202544, by adopting a method to reduce labor-hours to develop a new GDMO translator by making the output code predetermined using a generating source template. However, a second problem arises that, in the conventional systems, syntaxes of the output-able source file are restricted.
The reason for the above problem is as follows. Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 8-202544 produces a table of results of a syntax semantics analysis step by classifying those by a standard of the semantic information. The program generation processing portion generates a generation source program by filling a prescribed portion of a generation source template with information referring to the table. However, since unnecessary information in the semantic analysis step is excluded, information embedded in the output file is limited.
Additionally, it is possible by the table to manage information which does not contain nesting, but it is not possible to manage an input file having a syntax containing nesting. Thus, the form of information which can be stored in the table is restricted. Furthermore, the syntax for generating the generation source program is restricted.
The third problem is in that generation templates disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 8-202544 are not able to generate output source programs having several syntax structures. Practically, impossible output source programs include an output source program containing not a fixed number of nests or an output source program having a completely different content from the input file content.
The reason of the third problem is because the generation source template has only two constituting elements. One of these elements is a template output portion for outputting the content of the generation source template as it is to the output source program, and another is a substitution portion which, after referring to the elements in the table of the analysis information table, outputs the substituted portion to the output source program after substitution. It is not possible for these two elements to generate an output source program having not a fixed number of nests or an output source program which does not have a completely different content from the content of the input file.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to reduce man-hours to develop a GDMO compiler and to facilitate the development of GDMO compilers for output files having different syntaxes.
Another object of the present invention is to facilitate maintenance of the GDMO compiler by facilitating change of the syntax of the output file.
The other object of the present invention is to generate an output file based on a complicated syntax as the output file of the GDMO translator which facilitates change of the syntax of the output file. Here, the complicated syntax means a syntax for generating output files containing a nest structure with an indefinite depth or generating completely different output files depending upon the input file content.